Roelf Vos

The Vos family retained ownership of the properties, including two shopping centres in the north and north west of Tasmania. They were rebranded as Woolworths in the early 2000s.

The Final store to be built under the Roelf Vos name was the Legana store, just north of Launceston. Only opening in 2000, a fitting final store being only a 5 minute drive from Grindelwald.

Roelf Vos (1921 – 2 December 1992) was a Dutch Australian businessman who established a supermarket chain carrying his name initially in Launceston, and later throughout northern Tasmania. The equivalent in the south of the state was Purity Supermarkets established by Engel Sypkes.

By 1969, he was operating eight supermarkets in Launceston, each with a car park and a combined turnover in 1969 of $3,500,000. In December 1969 he purchased two Moran & Cato shops in Ulverstone and Devonport for $250,000, and was hoping to open two new shops, one of which in Burnie. He ultimately had thirteen supermarkets employing 500 people. In 1982, after he suffered two heart attacks, the supermarket operations were sold to Woolworths, which continued to trade under the Vos name for 20 years. Vos went on to establish the Grindelwald resort in Tasmania, modelled on Grindelwald in Switzerland.

Born and raised in the Netherlands, he was involved in the resistance during the second world war. He migrated with his wife and children to Australia in 1951 where he initially worked as a labourer on a wage of $19. In 1954 he opened a gift store in Deloraine followed shortly afterwards by another in George Town. Around 1958, he rented a small shop in Launceston, a milk bar which he converted into northern Tasmania's first self-service grocery store.